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Bloomsbury Publishing has scooped historian Nan Sloane’s "trailblazing account" of Britain’s first female cabinet minister, Margaret Bondfield.
Senior commissioning editor Atifa Jiwa acquired global world rights to Margaret Bondfield: The Life and Times of a Political Pioneer from the author directly. The book will be published in January 2026 through the publisher’s Academic & Professional Division.
The synopsis reads: "Nan Sloane plans to bring a wealth of new research to light, collected from national and international archives as well as Bondfield’s own diaries, to offer a fresh and vitally needed reassessment of her remarkable life and contribution, and to restore her to the more prominent place in political, economic and social history that she deserves."
Sloane is a Labour historian, author and speaker, and her most recent books include Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries (Bloomsbury), and The Women in the Room: Labour’s Forgotten History (Bloomsbury).
The author said: "Margaret Bondfield’s important role in politics has historically been overlooked, but as we have recently marked the 100-year anniversary since she was first elected to parliament, and seen the increasing calls for her portrait to be hung in Westminster, her significance is slowly being revised. Through this new examination of her political and personal life, I hope to continue to restore her to her rightful place in history."
Jiwa added: “In recent years Nan Sloane has been on a crusade to honour the life and work of Margaret Bondfield and restore her status as a political pioneer. As an expert in the role of women in politics, with a proven record of reinstating the critical role women have played in British social and political history, Nan is the very best person to write this biography. I am delighted to work with her again and bring this important reassessment of a pivotal political figure to readers."